Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for being here. I'm Liam McGee, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of The Hartford. I hereby call this shareholder meeting to order. This afternoon, you will consider and vote on the five proposals in the proxy statement. After the voting, I'll provide a brief update on The Hartford and then open the floor to your questions. We'll now start with the formal part of the meeting. Ms. Patricia Hoffman from Broadridge is acting as Inspector of the Voting, and she reports that we do have a quorum. The first proposal to be acted upon is to vote on each of the 10 director candidates, and they are Robert B. Allardice III, Trevor Fetter, Kathryn A. Mikells, Michael G. Morris, Thomas A. Renyi, Julie G. Richardson, Virginia P. Ruesterholz, Charles B. Strauss, H. Patrick Swygert, and me, Liam E. McGee.
All the nominees are here except for Virginia Ruesterholz who has a conflicting obligation. The second proposal is to ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2014. Representatives of Deloitte & Touche are here with us today. The third proposal is to approve, on a non-binding advisory basis, the compensation of the named executive officers as disclosed in the proxy. The fourth proposal is to approve The Hartford 2014 Incentive Stock Plan as described in the proxy. The last proposal is approval of the material terms of the annual executive bonus program and related performance goals in compliance with Section 162 of the Internal Revenue Code. Those are the five proposals before this meeting. Are there any shareholder comments or questions regarding any of the proposals?
If any shareholder wants to vote by ballot and has not already received one, please raise your hand and a ballot will be brought to you now. If you're voting by ballot now, please hand it in to someone who's in the aisle. As I believe all shareholders have had an opportunity to vote, I'll now ask Don Hunt, our Corporate Secretary, to provide the results of the shareholder voting. Mr. Hunt?
Thank you. The Inspector of Elections has tabulated the votes cast. The voting results confirm that all 10 nominees have been reelected to the board of directors. Shareholders have ratified the appointment of Deloitte & Touche as the company's independent auditors, and shareholders have approved the company's executive compensation on an advisory basis, The Hartford 2014 Incentive Stock Plan, and the material terms of the annual executive bonus program.
Thank you, Don. This concludes the business portion of the meeting. I'll now spend a few minutes talking about what we've achieved at The Hartford. Since I'll be making some statements that should be considered forward-looking, please do note the information on this slide, which also appears on the Annual Meeting tab of our investor relations website. More than two years ago, The Hartford launched a three-part strategy to create greater shareholder value: profitably grow our property and casualty, group benefits, and mutual funds businesses, reduce the size and risk of our annuity runoff operations, and to increase the company's operating effectiveness and efficiency. We've made substantial progress on each part of our strategy. In 2013, the company's core earnings grew 26% to $1.7 billion. That momentum carried into 2014. In the first quarter, core earnings increased 23% in our P&C, group benefits, and mutual funds businesses.
Next, we dramatically reduced the risk in our legacy annuity blocks. The transaction we announced last month to sell our Japan annuity company will generate an estimated $1.4 billion capital benefit to the company, and upon closing, permanently eliminate the highest risk and most volatile part of our annuity block. Third, The Hartford is working better. We are simplifying and improving our processes and investing for profitable growth in our people, new systems, applications, and business platforms. The successful execution of our strategy has resulted in financial strength and flexibility, which has enabled us to increase the dividend, pay down debt, and repurchase equity. We're proud that our progress has generated strong returns for shareholders. In 2013, The Hartford delivered a total shareholder return of 64%, which is compared with 32% for the S&P 500 index and 47% for the S&P Composite 1500 Property & Casualty Insurance Index.
We're energized by our accomplishments, but realistic about the work still ahead. We will continue to execute our strategy to drive profitable growth and deliver greater value to our shareholders. In closing, I'm very grateful to the board of directors for their wise counsel and support, to the management team for their leadership and their collaboration, and to all The Hartford's dedicated employees who have made these achievements possible. Thank you very much for your attention. I'll now open the floor for general questions. As a reminder, if you have a question, please raise your hand, and we'll bring a microphone to you. Also, state your name and identify yourself as a shareholder or a shareholder representative. Seeing that there are no questions, I want to thank you for your interest and support of The Hartford. Thank you all for coming, and have a nice day.